Journalist Bob Woodward blasts Obama "madness" in handling cuts -- Reuters

[bsteadman]

Journalist Bob Woodward blasts Obama "madness" in handling cuts

Reuters
Susan Heavey
2/27/2013

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON | (Reuters) - Journalist Bob Woodward on Wednesday criticized Barack Obama's handling of the automatic U.S. budget cuts set to take effect this week, calling the president's decision to hold back on military deployments "madness."

His comments continued what has become a running dispute between Woodward, perhaps the country's best-known print journalist, and the Democratic White House over who is responsible for the across-the-board cuts scheduled to begin on Friday.

Last week, Woodward published an opinion piece in the Washington Post - where he is an associate editor - saying the administration was "wrong" to blame the cuts on Republicans.

That drew retorts from White House press secretary Jay Carney, who in posts on Twitter and later in comments to reporters blamed the budget stalemate on Republican opposition to including increased revenues in any deal to replace the cuts.

The $85 billion across-the-board budget cuts were mandated by Congress and the White House as part of the August 2011 deal to avoid a government default. The reductions are split between defense spending and domestic programs.

Woodward, who first gained fame in the 1970s from exposing the Watergate scandal during the administration of President Richard Nixon, wrote a detailed account in his 2012 book, "The Price of Politics," of the August 2011 deal that led to the cuts.

On Wednesday he attacked Obama for drawing national security into the budget debate.

"So we now have the president going out (saying) 'Because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can't do what I need to do to protect the country.' That's a kind of madness that I haven't seen in a long time," Woodward told MSNBC on Wednesday.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91Q11620130227

[bsteadman]

Woodward: White House Warned Me "You Will Regret Doing This"

Real Clear Politics
2/27/2013

Excerpt:

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: You're used to this kind of stuff, but share with our viewers what's going on between you and the White House.

BOB WOODWARD: Well, they're not happy at all and some people kind of, you know, said, look, 'we don't see eye to eye on this.' They never really said, though, afterwards, they've said that this is factually wrong, and they -- and it was said to me in an e-mail by a top --

BLITZER: What was said?

WOODWARD: It was said very clearly, you will regret doing this.

BLITZER: Who sent that e-mail to you?

WOODWARD: Well, I'm not going to say.

BLITZER: Was it a senior person at the White House?

WOODWARD: A very senior person. And just as a matter -- I mean, it makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, 'you're going to regret doing something that you believe in, and even though we don't look at it that way, you do look at it that way.' I think if Barack Obama knew that was part of the communication's strategy, let's hope it's not a strategy, that it's a tactic that somebody's employed, and said, 'Look, we don't go around trying to say to reporters, if you, in an honest way, present something we don't like, that, you know, you're going to regret this.' It's Mickey Mouse. (The Situation Room, February 27, 2013)

View the complete post, including video, at:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...gret_this.html

[AMERICAN ADVOCATE]

BOB WOODWARD did a tremendous job of exposing Nixon and the Watergate break in .
He must wake up and do his part to expose the fraudulent . treasonous , ineligible , inept , incompetent ,lying , muslim loving communist who illegally " occupies " our oval office and Whitehouse .

[bsteadman]

WMAL EXCLUSIVE: Woodward's Not Alone - Fmr. Clinton Aide Davis Says He Received White House Threat

WMAL
2/28/2013

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON -- Bob Woodward isn't the only person who's received threats for airing the Obama administration's dirty laundry. It seems anyone is a potential target of the White House these days - even former senior members of the Clinton administration.

A day after Woodward's claim that a senior White House official had told him he would "regret" writing a column criticizing President Obama's stance on the sequester, Lanny Davis, a longtime close advisor to President Bill Clinton, told WMAL's Mornings on the Mall Thursday he had received similar threats for newspaper columns he had written about Obama in the Washington Times.

Davis told WMAL that his editor, John Solomon, "received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn't like some of my columns, even though I'm a supporter of Obama. I couldn't imagine why this call was made." Davis says the Obama aide told Solomon, "that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials."

Davis says he does not know if the White House official involved in his case is the same one who is alleged to have threatened Woodward, but he says the language used in both cases is very similar. In any case, Davis says his editor, Solomon, was not worried by the threat.

"He didn't take it seriously, because he didn't think that could ever happen. He thought it was bluster," Davis told WMAL. "I called three senior people at the White House, and I said, 'I want this person to be told this can never happen again, and it's inappropriate.' I got a call back from someone who was in the White House saying it will never happen again."
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View the complete article at:

http://www.wmal.com/common/page.php?...8924&is_corp=0

[bsteadman]

MUST READ: Jarrett’s Warning Reveals Itself (WSI Related)

The Ulsterman Report
Ulsterman
2/28/2013

Excerpt:

Given the recent news of media figures being threatened by figures within the Obama White House, I thought it wise to revisit that dire warning allegedly spoken by Senior White House Adviser (and de-facto President) Valerie Jarrett just days before the November Election…

( “After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time.” )

__________________________

Excerpt from story originally published November 1st, 2012:

“…The part that really stuck out to me was when I overheard the rep say that Jarrett told them, “After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.” She was talking directly to about three of them. Sr. staff. And she wasn’t trying to be quiet about it at all. And they were all listening and shaking their heads and smiling while she said it. Pretty creepy.

Why are they so confident about winning next week? We aren’t getting any numbers in the office that has any of us knowing Obama will win. It will be close. Jarrett and her people seem so confident. Why is that? Do you have any information on why she is so confident? I’m worried. Benghazi was supposed to play big this weekend. That is what everybody here was bracing for last week. You could really tell the staffers were freaking out. Now nobody is talking about it. Like it was never a concern. Like it never even happened. Don’t you have people to help with that? What happened? You said it was going to be a game changer. I told some others it would be and now I’m kind of hanging out there. Not the only one around here who got a real bad vibe after the Alex thing. Help! Need some good news after today!” - WHI
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View the complete post at:

http://theulstermanreport.com/2013/0...f-wsi-related/

[bsteadman]

Left-Wing Writer Asks, "Who Will Go Birther First?"

BUT WHY IS HE ASKING

The Post & Email
Sharon Rondeau
2/28/2013

Excerpt:

An editorial writer at Breitbart has compiled a list of "journalists" who have opined that the email which Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward received from White House Economic Adviser Gene Sperling was not threatening in nature.

Sperling had "advised Woodward to rethink [...]

View the complete article at:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2013/02/...birther-first/

[bsteadman]

Woodwardgate: Media Gang-Tackle Iconic Journalist to Save Obama

Breitbart/Big-Journalism
2/27/2013

Excerpts:

Wednesday night on CNN, legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward stated that a “very senior person” in the Obama administration had told him in an email that Woodward would “regret” it if he continued to press the point that President Obama was the originator of the idea of sequestration, bore responsibility for it, and needed to stop redeploying defense resources to make political points. The Obama aide, Woodward told Politico, “yelled at me for about a half hour” as well. “I’ve tangled with lots of these people,” Woodward said. “But suppose there’s a young reporter who’s only had a couple of years – or 10 years’ – experience and the White House is sending him an email saying, ‘You’re going to regret this.’ You know, tremble, tremble, tremble. I don’t think it’s the way to operate.”

This is an incredible case of the White House attempting to bully the most iconic reporter of the 20th century – the reporter who, along with Carl Bernstein, took down a president of the United States. So you might expect the rest of the media to stand with Woodward. You’d be wrong. They’re too busy spending time playing defense for the White House.

It began with Politico itself, which downplayed the entire incident, even as it acknowledged that Woodward’s “play-by-play is basically spot on” with regard to reporting the sequestration. “White House officials are certainly within their rights to yell at any journalist, including Bob Woodward,” said official Obama buddies Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei. Allen and VandeHei merely suggested that the battle with Woodward was “a major distraction at a pivotal moment for the president.” They added, “Watching and now having interviewed Woodward, it is easy to see why White House officials get worked about him.” Poor Obama, having to deal with such issues.

Next, the White House went to its favorite outlet, Buzzfeed, and their favorite BenSmithing reporter, Ben Smith, to leak the source of the Woodward “regret” email. It’s clear why they did it – Smith spun the entire incident for the White House. After announcing that the email came from Gene Sperling, director of the White House Economic Council, he proceeded to pretend that the threat email wasn’t a threat email at all – actually, Woodward was making a rookie mistake by misinterpreting a kindly tip as a threat: “Officials often threaten reporters that they will ‘regret’ printing something that is untrue, but Woodward took the remark as a threat.” Nothing to see here. Move along. Just to clarify, Smith later added via Twitter, “Am I crazy to read ‘regret’ here as ‘regret being wrong’? This is something flacks yell at reporters a lot.”
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(The) ... madness has now infected the mainstream media. They’re too busy defending President Obama to defend the American people – or even their fellow members of the press – from Obama’s thug White House. - (bold and color emphasis added)

View the complete article, including video, at:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journal...ckles-Woodward

[bsteadman]

Free Republic is running a thread titled, "Bob Woodward on threat from White House staff: "...it makes me very uncomfortable to have the", which was started 2/27/2013 by 'Nachum'

The thread references a 2/27/2013 CNN article involving 'The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer' - http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/20...ou-believe-in/

View the complete Free Republic thread at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2992022/posts


The following is COMMENT #30 by 'Seizethecarp' in the thread:

Whether true or not in the Hollywood version, FReepers of a certain age will remember getting chills during the most suspenseful moment in the Watergate movie when Woodward and Bernstein are warned by Deep Throat that their lives might be in danger.

This incident brings back memories and Woodward looks like he is confronting Barry head-on!


The following is an excerpt from COMMENT #35 by StormEye in the thread:

And why should Obama give one ounce of respect to the American "news" media. The media has been genuflecting and kissing Obama's ass these last four years; they have covered for him, lied for him, distorted the news for him, protected him, worshiped him and brainwashed millions of Americans for him. Obama is treating the obsequious American media with the contempt it deserves.

Like an abused wife blindly in love with an abusing, cheating husband the American so called "news" media will always crawl back for another kick in the teeth from their beloved Obama and his Democrats. The MSM really are the deluded true believers. And Obama knows it.


The following is COMMENT #40 by 'Seizethecarp' in the thread:

“These Chicago thugs aren’t afraid of anyone. If the boot-lickers in the media do not wake up and band together over this, there will be nothing stopping Obama.” - (quote from COMMENT #22 by 'BuckeyeTexan)

Correct. They did when Jarrett went after Fox and tried to exclude them from the White House press corps, so we can hope. This situation where the president and “all the president’s men” lie all day every day with impunity can’t be more serious.

Barry can’t get his agenda through if the Dems don’t retake the House and pick up more senate seats in 2014 and they can’t do that if Barry can’t deflect all blame for the coming disasters onto the GOP unimpeded by truthful journalists like Woodward. Barry wants to run the table. His arrogance is amazing and will be his downfall.

[bsteadman]

White House Out Of Control: In Targeting Woodward, Team Obama Reeks Of Desperation

Mediaite
Joe Concha
2/28/2013

Excerpt:

When a senior White House official resorts to threatening such a respected figure in journalism like Bob Woodward, all members of the journalism community–right/left/center–should find it unsettling.

Why?

If he or anyone in media can’t do his or her job without attempting to be intimidated by a government official, we’re in deep trouble.

Sure, the “threat” isn’t something out of the Paulie Walnuts playbook, but what appears to be a disagreement between two longtime major players inside the Beltway. The “regret” comment followed senior White House aide Gene Sperling’s petulant 30-minute temper tantrum to Woodward about getting it wrong on the President coming up with the idea of sequester.

Of course, the reporter spent months compiling material for his unflappable best-selling book, The Price of Politics, which includes in-depth interviews with everyone from John Boehner to President Obama to every major player involved in the failed 2011 Fiscal Cliff negotiations, but no matter. Woodward won’t have to take the bus to work to avoid ever starting his car again. And unless he decides to take a trip to Yemen and happens to land on a certain kill list, the 69-year-old icon should be physically fine.

So with the hyperbolic stuff out of the way, in the case of the President’s word vs. Woodward’s notes on the sequester, I’m still going with the guy Bob Schieffer called “the best reporter of our time.” No one has been trusted enough to be granted the level of access he’s been afforded. According the New York Times book review, “No reporter has more talent for getting Washington’s inside story and telling it cogently.”

Woodward is unlike, say, his Washington Post counterpart Ezra Klein, who moonlights as an MSNBC host when he isn’t challenging Mr. Woodward on the very facts he compiled from interviews and minutes for his book.

Klein is being used here as an example in an effort to highlight the differences between a writer/cable news host, who presides over programming that largely depends on myopic opinion, noise and presenting an argument that fits a general narrative of a network, and a seasoned reporter not looking to become a TV star on an ideological program.

Klein is a rising star at MSNBC—was once even rumored to be getting his own show—because he follows the rules of advocacy journalism without fail. Woodward, conversely, is a reporter without an agenda to advance or narrative to conform to. He has no cable show. He’s isn’t even a contributor on any network. He can be found on CNN, Fox or MSNBC with centrist, conservative or liberal hosts at any time, but only as a guest. Never raises his voice, never makes blind guesses on what may be going on with a particular situation.

Instead, he reports based on meticulous detail around the topic at hand via interviews he’s done with people closest to the situation and recordings of meetings behind closed doors. It’s what used to be called reporting. And he gains access to such sensitive discussions because he’s trusted by members of both sides of the aisle.

Twelve #1 Best-Sellers and multiple Pulitzers back up all of these accolades.

So when Woodward challenges the President on “moving the goal posts” on the sequester by adding tax increases to the conversation when revenue was never part of the original agreement with Republicans that focused strictly on spending cuts, or when he says the sequester was Mr. Obama’s idea after the President says it wasn’t, logical people—those without blind allegiances or aren’t willing to debate without attacking the messenger—believe Woodward. They believe based on a lifetime record of telling nothing but the truth based on what he witnessed, wrote and recorded via extraordinary access.

Being publicly contradicted by Woodward is unfamiliar territory for some members of the Obama Administration, who aren’t used to getting the kind of retort they received from him this week. They’re also not used to not being able to simply demonize the opposition via its friends in the media, some of whom are now former senior officials.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/white...f-desperation/

[bsteadman]

Thug: Team Obama Threatens Three High-Profile Newsers; News Media Is The Enemy Within

Birther Report
3/1/2013

Excerpt:

Team Obama Threatens Three High-Profile Newsers... Watergate famed journalist, Bob Woodward, former AP writer & now Editor-in-Chief of National Journal, Ron Fournier, and former counsel to disgraced President Bill Clinton & now political pundit, Lanny Davis.

You'd think the Idiots would know who they are dealing with. An identity thieving, baby killing, Marxist Thug.

View the complete Birther Report presentation at:

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogs...hree-high.html